Over the past decades, research on first-generation students (FGS), defined as students who are the first in their families to study at a higher education institution, has steadily increased, resulting in a proliferation of publications (Beattie, 2018). Despite the increasing popularity of this research strand, numerous studies criticize the arbitrary and superfluously use of the term, resulting in an international incommensurability of data, and the lack of differentiation within the group of first-generation students (Ives & Castillo-Montoya, 2020). Not only is there substantial variation among first-generation students, but, compared to continuing-education generations, they are also more likely to be multiply minoritized based upon race, gender, and social class (Chen & Carroll, 2005; Choy, 2001; Toutkoushian, Stollberg & Slaton, 2018). Individuals with multiple marginalized identities are at a heightened risk of facing greater oppression than those with fewer marginalized identities (King & McPherson, 2020; Roscigno et al., 2022). Although it is collectively affirmed that the experiences of students are particularly challenging when the first-generation status intersects with other marginalized identities, such as race, socioeconomic status, gender, and age (Harackiewicz et al., 2016), Ives and Castillo-Montoya (2020) reveal that most scholars frame FGS from a limited number of theories pertinent to dominant “white” identity groups, namely Bourdieu (1986), Tinto (1993), and Bandura (1997). Against this backdrop, employing intersectionality as a theoretical lens is essential to uncover the power structures that shape the experiences of students facing intersecting forms of marginalization (Collins, 2000; Crenshaw, 1989). By aiding in structuring and guiding the data analysis, frameworks play a crucial role in empirical research; yet little is known about the ways in which intersectionality is applied as an analytical framework in research on first-generation students. This contribution attends to this gap by examining over forty empirical studies that analyze first-generation students through an intersectional lens. Through the analysis, key similarities, and differences in their approaches to study FGS as multiple identities are identified.

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